China’s greenhouse gas emissions may be slowing

New York Times : China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, appears to be making progress in its efforts to reduce its emissions and transition to more renewable energy sources. According to official energy data, Chinese emissions dropped 1–1.5% last year from 2014. The reason may be China’s efforts to cut its coal use and switch from an energy-intensive economic model based on heavy industry to a more sustainable one, say Fergus Green and Nicholas Stern, whose paper was published recently in Climate Policy. However, some doubt has been expressed concerning Chinese energy statistics, which are frequently revised and often unreliable, according to another study , published in Nature Climate Change. “I would be more confident to say that China has reached a plateau or period of low growth,” says Glen Peters, one of the coauthors of the Nature paper.